Terry Asks for Your Take: Is a Citizens Oversight Committee for HCSO a Good Idea or a Bad One?
As the Board of Supervisors weigh the Civil Grand Jury’s suggestion of creating citizen oversight committee. Terry Torgerson ponders whether an oversight committee would be good or bad?
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Good Idea
HCSO should have nothing to hide.
Maybe a watchdog committee for the BOS too?
Well, ILS, Sheriff Honsal makes over $300,000/year, which should be “oversought”, and your Stupidvisors do practically nothing, but each one is paid about $110,000 per annum, which is pretty good pay for sitting there and watching videos on their phones, or whatever the heck they are doing…
The whole county is percolated through with corruption, but this is a phenomenon extant in other counties…
What, if anything, would YOU do?
Hell, you elected them…
That is supposed to be the Auditor Controller. Normally an elected position But our current one, Dillingham, was appointed by Bohn and double paying herself. Making over 290,000 I believe. So she lets B.O.S do what they like. Oh and in our courts our recently shamed and ousted judge Kries is now practicing as a lawyer defending people he made judgements on. Creating grounds for mistrial. The swamp is thick and full of shit.
Absolutely yes. This should have been done years ago when there were allegations of misconduct and corruption in both the HCSO and Coroner’s office. So far nothing has really happened. Our current Sheriff is extremely corrupt and incompetent. Of course, the BOS, being equally corrupt and likely up to their eyebrows in all of Honsal’s corruption probably doesn’t want any discovery or disclosure as it would implicate too many people. There should actually be investigation and action taken by an uninvolved, out of state law enforcement agency because California has no law enforcement agency trustworthy enough to actually follow through. Then again, as is being discovered more and more daily, even federal agencies like the FBI and Secret Service are in no way trustworthy. Therein lies the need for civilian oversight. We cannot trust any branch of government to do the job with integrity, actually follow through with changes based on what they find or to actually tell the truth about their findings.
lots of claims, any solid proof ? in theory, a good idea, in reality, probably a bunch of karens and anti L.E. waste of time and resources.
No proof?
Here is a destroyed coastal wetland in Mike Wilson’s district.
“No controversy.” Collin Ewing, BLM.
If cannabis farmers would have done this, they’d be jailed.
And then there’s Dan. Always ready to turn even a story about the flavors of chewing gum into a rant about the dunes.
Mis Adventure, if you study a bit, you’ll learn that this land can be repaired
, and ignoring the loss of rare constructed coastal habitat is not only a sin but criminal-level negligence. When erosion results from your restoration effort, you stop and repair.
You are a smarty. Tell us what happened here. No, this is not an anomaly. We literally teach kids to create deserts out of wetlands.
Then we call it enhanced biodiversity; not one science teacher has called bullshit when nothing is more straightforward.
How is this connected to the HCSO?
BoS oversight and accountability for our natural resources are lacking as with the HCSO.
Many things are lacking.
Like already said, lots of claims being made by ALF but they don’t offer any specific incidents or information to prove what they are saying to be true. Obviously, they trust no one in Government so who would they suggest be the oversight agency. If not another government who. A group of people like ALF who obviously have an ax to grind against government officials because they didn’t get their way.
I called the SO to respond to home invasion, vandalism and burglary in progress. HCSO response, “Too busy.” One week later, they committed murder, SO took almost 2 years to “investigate.” They couldn’t find the perps stolen vehicle, even though I reported it and it’s location almost a week before the murder. Gillespie was finally convinced to plead guilty.
Then there’s the Benbow SAR for two missing girls. Honsal refused to allow the experts run the search. Mendocino finally took over and within hours the girls were found. Honsal almost had their blood on his hands.
You have to be in denial not to remember the corruption scandal in the Coroner’s office. Where’s the investigation Honsal promised? Where’s the prison sentences that should have been handed down? That’s right, he campaigned on doing the investigations, but it was only to get elected, then buried… unless you can show where something was done.
Then, Where’s the outrage for all the fines handed out on growers? You complain these were excessive and wrong, yet when I bring up things done to other parts of the population you say there’s no proof. The reason I am vague is because these corrupt government officials are definitely reading this trying to come after those who point out corruption with slander.
Know this. Both the BOS and the Sheriff are only in it for themselves. To say they care about anything or anyone else except their own agenda is false. Not one of them has received my vote, nor will they.
I think it could be a good idea except that people like Alf and Dan are the most likely people to volunteer.
What backwoods idea do you have, Creeker?
All right. You’ve both degenerated into insults. Stop it.
The comment by w creeker simply made the valid point that people with an ax to grind (specifically, people like Alf and Dan) are the most likely to seek appt to an oversight committee.
If that’s an insult then the insult meter must be very finely tuned!
But what’s clearly a violation of the rules is Dan’s penchant for posting the same off topic info to multiple threads.
With honest unbiased citizens intending public good, it would be an extra layer safety. Now find enough unbiased citizens to form a committee that can even agree on what public good is in a county where the half the citizens think they have an innate right to violate the law at will, routinely confuse vengeance with justice and are proud of it.
Yes, but professionals insist on oversight it works as well for them as it does for us.
Same caveat.
Essential. For transpaency & fairness. The HCSO WORKS FOR US and should be obligated to allow citizens to observe & catalog behavior of all officers & deputies
You mean in this day and age there is no citizen cop-watch on HSCO? “You must be joking, Mr Feynman”
Bohner already said Billy doing a great job, nothing to see here … that should be good enuf for us!
Will the watchers be given special They Live glasses?
Who will watch the watchers watching the watchers? We’ll have so many layers of oversight we’ll never find the original issue. I’m a citizen, I interact with Sheriff Deputies regularly as my neighbors. I have some idea what they deal with daily (ugh!) with the nature of crime now, but I find them amiable, kind and attentive when needed. But, I’m not a criminal. Bring back SCOP so citizens can get an actual experience of being a LEO. No cakewalk. Ride along. Eye opening!!!!
SCOP is still around. Saw one in Old Town at one of the Friday markets. Not often though.
This is only logical, yes absolutely they should have a citizens review.
Yes! The Sheriff holds great power, and there needs to be checks & balances. He’s popular, so the BoS supports whatever he does. Someone needs to mind the store. Of course, saying this needs doing, and doing it properly, are two different things. It will be challenging to implement good oversight.
An oversight committee is not warranted. HCSO is transparent.
There’s no problem so easy to solve as that which belongs to someone else. – Trent Marsh
Yes. Defiantly! If needed to push it through it could be set up on a (2 year) test basis.
Who would screen and hire the members? That group should include members of the Humboldt Human Rights Commission, some local lawyers, including a public defender or someone with that experience, and members of some established not-for-profit organizations that prioritize the well being of people.
Come to think of it, what would be the practical difference between a police oversight committee and the Grand Jury? (One would hope the oversight commission would be more independent).
Antifa buses.
When Billy has publicly declared that he has the right to decide which laws HCO will enforce, how an you say that we DON’T need oversight?
100%
The thing they should be practicing oversight on is: what happens to all the confiscated goods from drug busts and the like. I always thought the busted growers were just lying when they said they had money, guns, etc taken “stolen”. by the LEOs. Come to find out, after speaking to some retired LEOs, there are a minority of individuals in every orgsnizaton who do just that. Sure the guns were destroyed, not. They ended up in some sticky fingered LEOs home and he owns them now. Probably gave some to his kids for birthday presents. The excuse of, they were going to be destroyed anyway, is just an excuse. Probably should just give them back to the guy who got busted with that excuse since they cannot prove he used drug profits to buy them. While this is a minority of LEOs, it is a serious problem that needs to be monitored and stopped. Pro police, Anti thief of all stripes.
Amen to that. The ol blue lake police dept comes to mind….
No. Persons without law enforcement training are in no position to judge. We dont need more twenty twenty hindsight policies. The police are under plenty of rules and scrutiny already
Citizen oversight of law enforcement is necessary to enforce the “Serve,” as in: “Serve and Protect.
I often hear that if you have nothing to hide, you shouldn’t mind being watched, usually for those in the L.E.O. camp. I think it’s a wonderful idea, let’s have those folks put heir money where their mouth is.
Was involved with the founding Redwood Chapter of the ACLU board in the 1990’s when an oversight committee was the topic of a public hearing. All investigation of misconduct within Humboldt County then and now is done in-house. Those officers responsible for incidents like arresting a person with cash & drugs, but no record of the arrest. Homeless persons who were badly assaulted or had their backpack stolen were asked for ID and a warrant check was ran, but no report ever filed.Having taking many citizen’s complaints to the Sheriff on behalf of others, many believed a Citizen’s Review Board was long overdue. Members of Berkeley’s Board came and met with the Supervisors to discuss how it works in their city and how the relationship between the community and law enforcement improved by creating an atmosphere of trust. Threats by Humboldt Sheriff officers were made if we continued in our effort to pursue a citizen’s review board, because the officer responsible for the death of civil rights activist Virgil Paine was promoted in rank instead of being charged. Bob Martel and
Ruth Ann Cecil of the Country Activist newspaper ran an entire feature on their findings from their investigation. Paybacks to look the other way for those with the bucks to pay has been has bred the corruption.
Not sayin’ it didn’t all happen exactly as told – the only thing missing is the evidence.